Tag Archives: WoD Beta

Ashlei

This is going to be the most intuitive, fool proof level one carry strat I’ve ever written, as well as the most tragically depressing.

The team I’m using to beat up on a defenseless draenei child is as follows:

The first battle pet on my team has a decent heal. The second pet has some good offense and, preferably, a per-hit shield ability like Stoneskin. The middle pet is our level 1 carry. That’s really all there is to it. Note that I didn’t even specify the families involved, though you’ll generally want to steer clear of Flying and (especially) Critter type battle pets.

The reason this strategy is so simplistic and so sad is because of Ashlei’s middle pet, Doodle. It is similar to the new pet obtained through tailoring, the Elekk Plushie. The Elekk Plushie is a stuffed animal. All its attacks are fueled by the power of imagination, which means all Elekk Plushies do literally zero damage, including Doodle. However, the ability Nap Time will put Doodle to sleep for one turn and typical Tamer AI swaps pets which are stunned or slept, so you’re not quite safe to put in that level one for the carry when she first pops up.

What I recommend is, after demolishing Pixiebell, taking a bit of time to heal up and refresh buffs, maybe get in a couple hits on Doodle. Then, when Tally enters you’ll be ready to go.

The only thing to watch out for with Pixiebell is Life Exchange. I don’t really bother healing a lot before Pixie uses it, but I do keep up my defensive abilities, if possible. The longer this section of the fight goes the harder Pixiebell will hit with Arcane Blast, so the quicker you can kill her the better.

Tally has Stampede and will usually follow that up with the hard-hitting ability Headbutt.

This is why it’s preferable that at least one of your battle pets have that per-hit shield. Without the Shattered Defenses buff, Headbutt hits for 500 damage or so. If Tally gets Stampede off, its Headbutt will hit for 900 or more, which means curtains for most pets.

After Tally dies, Ashlei will swap her plushie back in. At this point, as long as you have one living pet capable of doing any damage at all you win. This is also how a level 1 carry is accomplished easily: I wait until this second appearance of the plush, then swap in my level 1 for as many turns as I’d like before finishing the job.

I’ve been able to solo this fight fairly handily with both my usual standby Emperor Crab and the Moonshell Crab I tamed on the eastern coast of Shadowmoon Valley. Many typically recommended utility pets like the Anubisath Idol or the Emerald Proto-Whelp do well here, too. The real challenge is crushing a little kid’s dream.

I hope you’re proud of yourself, monster.

Draenor Tamers

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A very new addition in this Warlords of Draenor beta build is a set of 6 tamers out in the world. These tamers have battle pets that are quite a bit easier than the very challenging Menagerie fights we’ve seen to this point. They give two-pet carry XP identical to the fights in Pandaria. Most of them are close to flight paths. For now, these tamers are kind of secret. They aren’t listed on the map at all, so it’s up to tamers to seek them out if they’d like to try their luck. These locations will be revealed in a later build, but for now, here are some maps to help you find them.

Frostfire Ridge Tamer: Gargra

Gargra has 3 super adorable frostwolf pup (beast family) battle pets in tow. Her location is the oddest, but if you follow the path around the back side of Grom’gar and hug the rocks on the north side her blue exclamation point should show up. Click here for my level one (or Elekk!) carry strategy for Gargra.

Gorgrond Tamer: Cymre

Cymre Brightblade, named after the illustrious Cymre Jones from Bubbles of Mischief, has an array of archaeology pets. She’s also squatting in a ruin with her archaeology gear and some really fun flavor text. With both an undead and mechanical on her team, dragonkin and elementals are good picks. Click here for my walkthrough of Cymre‘s very difficult fight.

Shadowmoon Valley Tamer: Ashlei

Found by @gloriaboboria

This team made me a little sad. Ashlei is a new tamer with a few really adorable pets, including the completely useless plushie Doodle. All the cute snugglies are on a plateau overlooking the Embari Village, but easily accessible from a cross-faction flight point. As of now it’s a pretty quick & easy fight, as long as you can get past the heartache of making a little girl very disappointed. Oh, that flavor text. Click here for my strategy for Ashlei, including a mutually-assured Elekk Carry.

Spires Of Arak Tamer: Vesharr

Found by @serrinnewow

The easiest to find once you hit the right level, Vesharr is visible on the minimap from the shared-faction flight point in Veil Terokk. He has 2 flying battle pets and a mechanical, appropriately themed for Spires of Arak. Click here for my strategy post for Vesharr, including an Elekk Carry.

Talador Tamer: Taralune

Found by @patf0rd

Taralune is on a platform surrounded by flowers, near Auchindoun. Her team is 3 moths, so as long as you have the battle pets to counter a moth you’re pretty well set. Click here for my strategy post for Taralune, which is a 2-pet Elekk Carry, also suitable for leveling pets.

Nagrand Tamer: Tarr

Found by Quintessence (@perksnpeeves)

Tarr is in a building toward the back of the Ring Of Blood. His pets are a few of the more recent Murky iterations. They actually have pretty decent synergy among them, but a handful of Undead battle pets will still make quick work of them. Click here for my strategy to defeat Tarr The Terrible. This is a 2-pet leveling strategy that also works well for our Awfully Big Adventure.

Gnawface

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New for 8/24/14: Good News, Everyone! In the latest beta build, Gnawface has been significantly nerfed to be more forgiving. As a result, I changed the screenshot featuring his stats (click here to see Gnawface’s old stats). I also re-tested the teams below and they all still work like a charm. Oddly, I’ve found that now the weird cats team at the bottom seems to be the most straightforward. Who would think, right?

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Gnawface is the first pet I’m going to write about that you must defeat in your garrison in order to open the Menagerie. The Menagerie is available to anyone as soon as your garrison reaches level 3. These battles are a part of the quest Pets vs Pests.

I know that everybody is going to want to open up their Menagerie, because who wants an uncompleted question mark on their record? The thing is, these fights are hard, and though I obviously can’t be sure, from the nature of the other battles I’ve seen it seems that the intent here is to show that the fights to come are no joke. If you can’t get these guys down first go, that is absolutely OK. Don’t be discouraged.

There are many teams you could use to beat Gnawface, and I’m going to highlight a couple, just because, as I said, this is going to be attempted by tamers who are not all that hardcore. Hopefully you can cobble together a team to defeat him.

Team 1: Humanoids A Go-Go.

The Kun-Lai Runt is tamed from Kun-Lai Summit & starts at level 23 or so. Bonkers is from gambling with Timeless Coins in Kukuru’s cave on the Timeless Isle. The Little Bad Wolf is the trickiest. It’s tradeable and obtained from the Big Bad Wolf in Karazhan. Both Little Bad & Bonkers start at level 1. All 3 are Humanoid, which means Gnawface’s critter abilities hit them weakly, and all 3 have a good complement of Beast abilities, meaning they hit Gnawface harder than normal. Lil Bad & Bonkers both have Dodge moves, making them last a very long time against Gnawface. If possible, use those dodges just as Gnawface’s Darkness wears off, because Call Darkness will hit your Humanoid pets for a lot of damage.

This team is the most straightforward for newbie tamers to use. No tricks or gimmicks. Just use your offensive moves, your defensive moves when needed, and this team will clean up.

Team 2: Moar DoTs

The Crunchy Scorpion is tamed in the Dread Wastes. The Obsidian Hatchling is sold for 50g in Dalaran. The Summit Kid is tamed in Kun-Lai Summit. There are some good substitutions for all 3 pets, because we’re really focusing on 1 ability for each. From the Scorpion, Sting is a long DoT which deals Beast damage. There are other scorpions and a couple snakes which fit this bill. From the Hatchling, Expose Wound increases each hit of that DoT by 74, so a DoT that ticked for 100 will now tick for 174. There are a number of other raptors that do this, including the tamed Cogblade Raptor in Blade’s Edge. The Summit Kid uses Stampede, which hits 3 times for 120 total damage on its own but applies Shattered Defenses, which doubles the damage done at the end of the Kid’s turn. Expose Wounds alone makes each tick of Stampede far more powerful, but with Shattered Defenses each tick of Stampede does over 200 damage. Add in that Sting and you’ve got yourself one dead rat.

This strategy is a bit more suited to experienced battlers, though the pets are easier to obtain. You have to swap each pet after it uses its designated ability or else the combos won’t line up properly.

An important point: Because Gnawface is a critter, both immobilize and stun effects will not work here. This means that some popular pets are ineffective. Namely, Spiders cannot web him & then use Spiderling Swarm for double damage.

Team 3: Like, Cats Or Whatever.

IDK, just a whole bunch of cats, or whatever. Pounce generally has better throughput than Claw, as long as your battle pet is faster than Gnawface. This is why I put Claw in the 2nd slot… if your cat is slower than Gnawface, Claw can help give you that edge regardless. You’ll have to experiment with your various cats to see whether you can pull off Prowl and still be quick enough to get it to hit. This team is by far the most susceptible to failure due to various RNG happenings & breed can be a huge consideration, so I’d consider this my last-ditch attempt. But hey, how often can I talk about just like, dozens of cats?

If you’re struggling here or have any questions, feel free to leave a comment to this entry, or ask me about it on Twitter (@Liopleurodonic). It’s a tough fight. If you can’t get it first go, have some boxed wine and come back later. Unless you’re underage, in which case don’t you dare let your parents know that Auntie Lio is the coolest ever.